July 10th

Yesterday July 9th, our hotline and our AZDA officer’s phone were both ringing before 5 am. These are never good calls.

There was a horse caught in a cattle guard in the Goldfield subdivision, (the subdivision along the beeline has a boundary with the Forest that is partially unfenced and there are several cattleguards) Upon arrival our officer observed the horse to be in distress with multiple injuries. SRWHMG volunteer Cris was there fast and immediately gave him sedation.

It was E.T. , an aging stallion who had just lost his band a few months ago. We are sorry to inform that the poor guy was not as lucky as Neiman and could not be saved. He was euthanized by our AZDA Officer, which is a very tough job to do, thank you Makenzie. His body was removed by Trailsend removal paid by SRWHMG. We are very sorry for this bad news. Sometimes our job is wonderful and sometimes it is just plain hard.

E.T. was just seen at the river the previous day, and had found one of the first feedlocations we have just started because the Forest resources are very poor again (more about the feed program later). We were glad he had found it, because he was getting on the skinny side.

But instead of thinking about his sad death, we like to think about the great life he had on the Salt River. He truly had it all; he had family, he had love, he had offspring, and he had freedom to do whatever he pleased his entire life. He was never chased by helicopters, never seperated from his family, and never removed from his home.

Run forever free, E.T.!

P.S.1 We would love to fix the problems with the fencing to the subdivision because horses should not be getting themselves in trouble inthere. However we’ve tried this and there is a lot of red tape involved and private property issues. Arizona is a fence out state.

P.S.2 In regards to cattleguards, yes they are absolute death traps, and we hate them with a passion. Whe’ve done our utmost to try and negate these aweful situations and MCDOT is working on the deterrents for the cattleguards on Bush Hwy, which should soon be coming! This is great news, so stay tuned.

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Thank you.